Action Congress of
Nigeria has told the Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency to
respond to the allegations that Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, and one of his companies
got contracts from Imo and Benue states, got mobilisation fees and
absconded.
In a statement on Monday
by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the ACN said
rather than respond to the allegations, Okupe and the PDP “have chosen
to play ostrich”.
The statement read in
part, “Their only defence so far is that the Speaker of Lagos State
House of Assembly should also be asked to resign and that the ACN lacks
the moral authority to raise the issue of corruption against Okupe
because, according to them, the party is full of cheats and liars. This
is nothing but a deliberate attempt to obfuscate issues and a case of
comparing apples with oranges.
“The Lagos State Speaker
Adeyemi Ikuforiji has been charged before a court of law. He has
pleaded not guilty. The law presumes him innocent until proven guilty.
The case is still on, therefore, any call for his resignation is an
attempt to stampede justice.
“The case of Okupe is
completely different. He has been confronted with allegations that he
has swindled both Imo and Benue state governments of hundreds of
millions of naira.
“He cannot continue to be the President’s spokesman until he clears himself of the allegations.”
The party dismissed the PDP’s allegations that the ACN is a party of dishonest persons.
It said since 1999,
three Presidents of the Senate and three Speakers of the House of
Representatives , who are PDP members, had been “consumed by
corruption”.
The ACN added, “Two former chairmen of
the PDP were forced out on account of allegations of corruption; a third
was the chairman of the PPRA whose inglorious role in the fuel subsidy
scam is subject of investigation and yet two sons of PDP chairmen are
facing corruption charges as a result of their involvement in the same
fuel subsidy scam. Twelve former governors of the PDP are today before
various courts on corruption charges.”
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